Back in 2018, I created the piece “Richey Warhol”, a screen print inspired by Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe print series. But instead of the Hollywood glitz, I wanted something rawer, Richey Edwards of Manic Street Preachers. A figure who was both defiant and fragile, burning bright and fading away all at once.

The Manics meant everything to me growing up. That mix of punk attitude, intellect, and rage, the idea of being glamorous in a run-down mining town, felt real. It wasn’t just about rebellion; it was about wanting more, knowing there was something bigger out there, and refusing to let the grey, grinding world tell you who to be.

That contradiction, beauty and decay side by side, hit home. As a punk teen on a council estate, making glam/punk clothes to express my art, I understood it completely. There’s something powerful in taking what’s bleak and making it electric, in finding defiance in style, in words, in art.

In this piece, the print itself fades as it goes, mirroring Richey’s disappearance…